Sounds of Encouragement
Encouragement from Musicians, Music Educators & Creatives for Creatives. Interesting interviews with music teachers, creatives, and musicians along with calming and topical encouragement as you face the challenges of everyday life. Find out what sounds and songs encourage other creatives and what keeps them hopeful, moving forward, and creative.
Episodes
Brenda Earle Stokes is a rare jazz artist with a true command of both the voice and the piano. Hailed as “a breezy delight” by Time Out New York, Brenda’s music is rooted in the jazz tradition with influences ranging from Brazilian music to rock radio. As a bandleader she has toured clubs and festivals across the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia and has released 6 albums own her own label. As a follow-up to her...
Brian Witkowski’s path has moved through the worlds of classical singing, voice teaching, and coaching—but the thread running through all of it is his belief in the power of a person’s voice to shape their life. Trained as a classical baritone, Brian spent years performing, teaching, and mentoring musicians, before his work expanded into supporting leaders, entrepreneurs, and creatives navigating high-pressure envir...
Katie has taught piano for nearly twenty years, and her love for the instrument began after taking lessons with a family friend at age six. Even in moments of deep frustration with the challenges of making ten fingers do ten different things, music kept calling her back.
After earning a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Western Washington University, Katie taught at two music schools and enjoyed a...
Michael Faire is a semi-active musician in North Georgia. A freelance collegiate trombonist turned music business professional, Michael now serves as the Instruments, Sales and Rentals Manager at Big Note Music. Since joining Big Note in late 2022 and rejoining in mid-2023, Michael has been focused on growing an organically started retail and lessons studio. Now on the second year of the studio and 2.5 years of reta...
Donna Hughes has written north of 500 songs. She has released 6 albums, containing mostly original material. Nominated for Songwriter of the Year in 2024 & 2025, for the SPBGMA Awards, her songs have been recorded & performed by Multiple Grammy Winner Alison Krauss & Union Station, Grammy Nominated Band-The Seldom Scene, Wyatt Rice's solo Album (with Vocals by Dale Ann Bradley & Russell Moore),...
Donna Hughes has written north of 500 songs. She has released 6 albums, containing mostly original material. Nominated for Songwriter of the Year in 2024 & 2025, for the SPBGMA Awards, her songs have been recorded & performed by Multiple Grammy Winner Alison Krauss & Union Station, Grammy Nominated Band-The Seldom Scene, Wyatt Rice's solo Album (with Vocals by Dale Ann Bradley & Russell Moore),...
As a Performance and Confidence Coach, Adam Cole wants to transform the world, one person at a time.
Adam writes about the central issues keeping us from moving: fear, doubt, lack of awareness of ourselves and our relationships. He is constantly asking: ‘How can we learn to see clearly in ourselves what is holding us back?
Adam began as a jazz bandleader and ballet accompanist in Atlanta, simulta...
Sarah Boyd, MM is a piano teacher, early childhood music specialist, and all-things music education enthusiast. She holds a Bachelor of Music Education from Grove City College and a Master of Music Education from Eastern Michigan University where she studied with Dr. Heather Shouldice. Sarah owns Piano Vine Studio, an audiation-based private and group piano studio founded in 2010 for students of all ages, both in-...
Award-winning music educator Merlin B. Thompson (PhD, MA, BMus) is the Creator and Founder of Teach Music 21C - a music teacher professional development program that highlights 21st century teaching tools and philosophy. Merlin is recognized internationally for his expertise in music studio teaching. His recent projects include working with hundreds of teachers, students and parents throughout Canada, USA, China, Ne...
Celeste Watson (MM, MS, NCTM) helps musicians achieve artistry through well-coordinated use of the body. She holds credentials in performing arts medicine, piano performance, and music education and coordinates return-to-play mentorships for keyboard musicians who have experienced injury. She owns a conservatory-model studio for pre-collegiate students in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (www.watson-music.com).
David Lane is an award-winning composer and arranger for film, concert, and musical theatre. He is the host of two podcasts: LIFE IN THE PIT (which is devoted to telling the stories of instrumentalists who play for musical theatre) and THE MUSICIAN TOOLKIT (which challenges musicians of all levels to develop a wide range of skills to become the most well-rounded musician they can be). He is coming up on 25 years as...
ANDREA GRODY is an Olivier and Drama Desk Award-nominated music director, arranger, and composer with a focus on developing new work. She is the Music Director & Music Supervisor of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical SUFFS. Andrea was also the Music Director and Additional Arranger for THE BAND'S VISIT (Best Musical Tony Award, 2018) and the Music Director and Vocal & Incidental Arranger for TOOTSI...
Artist Gurm was born in India, grew up in China and currently resides in Thailand. Having grown up and been schooled in an international environment, immersed throughout in a multi-cultural atmosphere, she has always been fascinated with the unique cultural elements and stories from all over the world. After following art as a passion since her middle school days, she honed her skills by doing a Masters in Visual Ar...
Lauren Best lives where the Pottawatomi River meets Georgian Bay, on the territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (now known as Owen Sound, Ontario). She is an interdisciplinary creative with a multifaceted community arts practice interweaving her work as a poet, musician, and composer/creator.
Lauren left her small Ontario town as a young singer-songwriter keyboardist and returned to become Poet Laureate Em...
Lauren Best lives where the Pottawatomi River meets Georgian Bay, on the territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (now known as Owen Sound, Ontario). She is an interdisciplinary creative with a multifaceted community arts practice interweaving her work as a poet, musician, and composer/creator.
Lauren left her small Ontario town as a young singer-songwriter keyboardist and returned to become Poet Laureate Emeritus (Ow...
Chris Rugowski is the man, or chicken as he is known to many, behind Chicken or The Egg Photography. He is a photojournalist who captures your authentic story. As of 2023, he’s been in photography for about a decade, and in that time has gone from hobbyist with an iphone doing a full time job in software engineering (i.e. living in the matrix) to breaking free of the matrix to become a full time freelancer living th...
Pam Asberry, M.M., has over forty years of professional experience as a music educator, adjudicator, performer, recording artist, speaker, author, composer and arranger. A BMI artist, she has released nine solo piano albums to date and her music can be heard on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, Sirius XM, and elsewhere. Described as “a new age solo pianist of uncommon melodic grace, insight and heartfelt intuitiveness”...
Asher began classical violin training at the tender age of
2 and had already performed with the Buffalo
philharmonic by age 13.
Asher’s expertise in improvisation across multiple genres
has led him to a career as a soloist in demand,
performing at venues such as Madison Square Garden,
Hammerstein Hall, Lincoln Center, the Jacob Javitz
Center and across four continents. Asher has also been...
Katie Dahl is a songwriter and playwright whose work is as expansive as Lake Michigan and as deeply rooted as its rocky coastal bluffs. A small-town celebrity on the Wisconsin peninsula where her family has lived for 175 years, she is now a radio-charting folk artist who tours around the world. Clear-eyed and tough-minded, fresh and funny, Katie “delivers razor-sharp lyrics with a hearty, soulful voice” (American So...
Owner/Instructor at the Linda Kennedy School of Piano and Voice, Linda began as an educator, arranger and performer at the age of 14.
Mrs. Kennedy is both a degreed and Nationally Certified teacher. She is a former instructor for Yamaha International and Kimball International. Mrs. Kennedy is a member of Kansas City Music Teachers Assoc. and former Executive Board member. She is an Executive Board Member of ...
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